This invention relates to mapping information in wireless communications systems or networks.
In order to improve efficiency for communications of data which is relatively insensitive to delay, e.g. packet data services, it has been proposed to use fast adaptive modulation and coding techniques and scheduling of data traffic on a high rate communications channel which may be shared by multiple users, such as a forward link from a base station to multiple mobile stations, in a known wireless communications system.
The adaptive modulation, coding, and scheduling can change as frequently as every time slot of the system (e.g. every 1.25 ms) to take advantage of varying channel conditions as well as the bursty nature of the packet data traffic. Thus the shared channel (SHCH), which is rate-controlled and for which fast cell or sector switching is provided rather than soft handoff, can have changes in modulation, coding, and scheduling or channel assignment to the users every time slot.
In addition to this fast adaptive modulation, coding, and scheduling to provide a shared data channel or “data pipe” to support packet data services, known wireless communications systems provide support for real-time circuit-oriented services, such as circuit-switched voice and circuit-switched data services, using dedicated channels. In contrast to a shared channel, a dedicated channel (DCH) is assigned or dedicated to a mobile station for a relatively long duration, typically a frame duration (e.g. 20 ms) or a multiple of the frame duration (e.g. 40 or 80 ms), has a relatively constant data rate with fixed modulation and coding, and is power-controlled with soft handoff supported.
Thus the dedicated channel and the shared channel are very different in their modes of operation.
In cdma2000 standards and known proposals, a “Mux and QoS Sublayer” within the OSI Layer 2 protocol stack is used to support resource management and multiplexing for different types of channel configurations. With such a structure, trying to meet the vastly different nature of the DCH and SHCH makes the design and implementation inefficient.
It is desirable to provide an improved arrangement which can facilitate resource management and multiplexing for such diverse channels in a wireless communications system.